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An Australian man has been handcuffed and locked up in a US detention centre after apparently breaching his visa conditions by just over one hour.
Sydney man Baxter Reid, 26, was in the US on a five-year visa and had travelled to Canada as part of a requirement for him to exit and re-enter America every six months to keep his visa valid.
But his American girlfriend Heather Kansco said Reid was arrested by US Border Patrol officers on 23 April after delays receiving clearance to cross into Canada meant he breached his visa conditions by just over an hour.
According to Kansco's account, the couple were given "the runaround" for more than four hours at the US-Canada border. By the time Canadian authorities referred them back to US Border Patrol, Reid had "technically violated his visa requirements".
"The US Border Patrol ended up taking Baxter away, because after waiting for hours with the Canadians, he ... was illegally in the US for a SINGLE HOUR," wrote Kansco.
A Canberra man has been detained in the United States for reportedly overstaying his visa by less than two hours.
... Mr Reid's brother, Alexander, said Canadian officials did not want to let Baxter through because his visa was close to expiring. "Because they had kept him, his visa had expired by 90 minutes," he said.
"He wants to go back home, but he wants to go of his own accord," Alexander said. "He doesn't want to get deported because he still wants to go back to the US because that's where his girlfriend lives."
"He wants to get a court date so he can say to the judge 'I was leaving [of] my own accord, I don't want to stay here illegally'," he said.
"But unfortunately a court date can be anywhere from a few weeks to six months.
"He could be locked up in detention for months only because his visa expired by 90 minutes."
Offering (forced) accommodation for free (on tax money) for at least a few weeks will prove a good investment in advertising the US tourism industry, right?
(Score: 2) by julian on Tuesday May 02 2017, @07:20PM (15 children)
If you're the sort of person who blames immigrants for stealing your jerb it's far more likely you're out of work because you're so unpleasant to be around.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @07:48PM (3 children)
It's true. Everybody hates me. I was canned as soon as they could find a brown skinned ass kisser to replace my surly ass.
Surly lives matter. Unpleasant folk need jerbs too.
(Score: 2) by julian on Tuesday May 02 2017, @07:58PM (2 children)
This is why we need universal basic income so I don't have to interact with people like you at the cash register of Chipotle. It's better for everyone that you just stay home.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @08:53PM
I agree because I don't want to talk to you either. Make your own burrito you lazy fuck. God damn if only Chipotle was a burrito bar then we wouldn't have to spoon this shit out for you. Operate your own damn spoon and put your money in the self checkout and I can't be bothered with you.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:02PM
GP was whining about the brown-skinned dude.
That is Fascist scapegoating.
Note that the dude who hired that guy he totally let off the hook.
The problem is the Capitalist system .
Wanna fix that?
Replace Capitalism (a system that has failed the 99 Percent and continues to get worse) with something better.
Instead of a system that maximizes profits for a few, move to a system that maximizes the wellbeing of the community.
Since 1985, Italy has had a plan to turn unemployed people into (Socialist) worker-owners.
The Marcora Law [google.com] It's VERY effective.
If you haven't heard about it yet, it's because your sources of "information" (Lamestream Media) suck.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by edIII on Tuesday May 02 2017, @08:30PM (10 children)
Hold on. Immigrants do steal jobs. That's an actual fact. However, what do they really mean by that? Remove the racist and nationalist overtones, and what you have is a Union problem.
There was a time when slavery (Africans) competed equally against slave wagers (ordinary Americans) and legal immigrants (deliberately imported Europeans). I maintain that it was the actual reason for the Civil War. The Owning Classes of the North and South fought each other over economic power and control, and who gets to trade what with England. It was a war of economics. In the North the Owning Class brought in their own version of H1Bs for the time and made ordinary Americans compete against them precisely because of the wars with the Unions. It was war, and the coal barons even had their own Coal Police that would beat and kill workers to get them back in line.
H1Bs are illegal immigrants that are very much fucking "stealing our jobs" and accepting table scraps for wages that they send back home. Yes, they do pay taxes while they are here, and they do contribute to the economy locally. I don't hate them for any of it though. It's a mistake to hate the SCAB, which is what all H1Bs are. Scabs.
I don't begrudge them a job. However, I do wish to beat the living fucking shit out of them for accepting less pay and benefits. That's the real issue. They are scabs, and we need to embrace the scab and bring them up at the same time. That's how you defeat the Owning Classes. You don't let them play us against each other.
It would be vastly preferable for those H1Bs to be striking with us. I still understand that they are just trying to make it too, but at the same time, they really do hurt us. A lot. There is an old man that trained his H1B replacement at Hewlett Packard. Nicest guy, and I'm sure he was nice to that H1B that did in actuality steal his job. At the end of the day, that scab caused our society great pain by putting that hard working skilled American onto the streets in our 10-year long and running Great Depression II.
In the end, the best solution to the immigrant problem? Don't fucking allow immigrants to work at all. At all. Nothing. Period. We allow them to become Americans, stand by us in equality, and demand a fair and sane work offer for a job. Not that scabs were ever a pure immigrant problem to begin with. Scabs are any person that breaks the line and accepts the shitty wage slaver work offers the Owning Class is offering on that day.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NewNic on Tuesday May 02 2017, @08:58PM (9 children)
As someone who is now a citizen, but came to the USA on an H1B visa (twice), I resent that. I was never employed because I was cheap. I was employed because there were no available people with my skills.
Yes, today there is rampant abuse of the H1B visas. This needs to be stopped. Also, people need to look at L1 visas: there may be a similar level of abuse going on with L1 visas as there is with H1Bs.
But, consider this, the Indian H1Bs pay social security, but those who return to India will never collect. To collect while living outside the USA, you have to be either a US citizen, or a citizen of a small number of countries which doesn't include India.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by edIII on Tuesday May 02 2017, @09:34PM (8 children)
Then resent away. I don't give a fucking shit.
1) H1Bs do work for less. Maybe you didn't, but the REAL REASON for H1Bs is that they are cheaper to work to death than an American, and they don't have as much interest or loyalty in America and don't fight back as hard. They also don't vote and are hated. A little difficult to rally you to our side under those circumstances right?
2) There are HUGE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE AVAILABLE WITH THE FUCKING SKILLS!!!!! Seriously, fuck you dude for pushing that fucking myth.
Did you not read what I wrote? A SKILLED WORKER trained his H1B REPLACEMENT. For every single H1B worker that exists, there is a trained American that can do the job. It's not getting better, and those trained Americans are getting holder, but that is directly the fault of the system. Why even try to get trained, go to college, when a foreign scab is just going to come in and work for less? Maybe less than 5% of jobs require such amazing skill sets that we can no longer find them in America, which is entirely our fault. It's not the majority of the H1B work force that possesses skills not found anywhere in America.
I don't give two fucks what you do with YOUR money. Take it back to India, wherever. What I care about is how you represent a second front on the war with the Owning Class. You enable them to abuse and oppress the rest of us, and after a few decades of it, America is now very weak and the bulk of the Middle Class is sliding down into the Poor, while the Upper classes have enjoyed unprecedented increases in wealth.
Congratulations on being a citizen. You are quite welcome here, and I'm grateful for you bringing your culture and viewpoints. I'm not fucking grateful for your H1B bullshit that hurt another American while you were busy getting here. You're here now. So fucking do something about with the rest of us and fight for better wages (living ones), safer working conditions, and more income equality that we need. Now the H1Bs can fuck you over just like you fucked over somebody else, so it is in your own interests to do so.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:33PM
Well said. Also, how is social security taken out if they are not a citizen? That seems like it should be illegal.
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:45PM (6 children)
Go fuck yourself and your assumptions about me, all of which are false.
Do you really think that my employers would take on the cost of someone who actually cost more than a local employee, if they had an alternative? I work in a small, specialised industry, which was even smaller when I got my H1Bs. Oh, and before moving to the USA, I was working in my home country for an American boss: fuck him for moving to my home country, right?
But H1Bs today: yes, the vast majority represent an abuse of the system.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by edIII on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:26AM (5 children)
Ohhh, bull-fucking-shit!
What is your skill? In what waaaaay, are you the intellectual fucking super-hero? Do understand how to speak to gravitons or some shit? Just what the fuck is it that you know, that an American does not also know?
Fuck you for pushing that myth. If you are one of the 1% or so of H1Bs that are so fucking skilled and smart for even their own country, that we have to poach you, then congratu-fucking-lations! I doubt it.
You did work for less. You cost less than what it cost to get an American to do it, and it served the needs of those outsourcing ivy-league hellbound fucks that chose you over an American. That's the fucking truth and you can own it mother fucker. You took a job from an American for no other reason than the class warfare that exists over here. It benefited you.
Congratulations! You're an American now. In a few years after you watch your kids get fucked over the same way and enjoy the irony of it.
I don't give a fuck about your American boss in your home country. If you didn't like him there, and he wasn't good for your community, then why didn't you all fucking nut-up and behead his ass? A lot of us back here wish you had. Then they wouldn't outsource everything all over the world because you bitches are easy pushovers compared to an American.
Stop acting like your such hot shit because you are directly stating to all of us here that you are, in fact, objectively, more skilled and better than the rest of us. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggghhhhht.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by linuxrocks123 on Thursday May 04 2017, @06:20AM (4 children)
Stop acting like your such hot shit because you are directly stating to all of us here that you are, in fact, objectively, more skilled and better than the rest of us. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggghhhhht.
Having a specialized skill doesn't make you a better human being. You said it does, not him. And you're being an arrogant jerk to this guy you don't know by assuming without evidence that he didn't have skills worth poaching.
By the way, that's another way to look at the whole H1B program: we're poaching talent. Yeah, the program needs reform: it needs to be set up explicitly to be "we're poaching skilled workers who want to come here", we should give them green cards sooner so that companies can't abuse the system by threatening to kick them out of the country, and the current "no domestic worker is available" standard is economically unsound nonsense. After all, there's someone available to do almost anything if you'll just pay them millions of dollars a year.
It's definitely in our interest to let skilled workers move here, though.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday May 04 2017, @07:02PM (3 children)
Point taken, however he strongly alludes to it. I didn't say he didn't have skills, what I said was that he was WRONG for saying that no other American had those skills. Yes, I do claim that he is full of shit about these EPIC level skills that nobody in America possesses. I will fully stipulate, congratulate, and admire the skills he worked to attain, but I will not buy into the bullshit that an American cannot be found with the same level of accomplishments.
He clearly has guilt about it and states that the program itself is flawed and not good for Americans, which is what he became. So he benefited from the program, and to assuage his own guilt, maintains that his skills could not be found in America. That's fucking bullshit for 99.99% of all H1Bs and everybody fucking knows it, especially his lying ass.
I'm still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he might be the .01% that have the skills, but he wont nut-up and amaze the rest of us with the skills that cannot be found in any American citizen.
Until he proves that no American had the skills, he is very much a dirty fucking scab and job stealer that enabled the hell bound Owning Class to pay less for those skills, profit more for themselves, and serve the primary motivating interest of all exec-u-scum; Profits. More profits. Profits at all costs.
As for the rest of your statement, you are preaching to the choir. I've no problem with poaching talent away from other countries, or other countries poaching talent from us. That's freedom to be able to choose where you live and work, and I'm willing to embrace foreigners just fine. Just not to the extent it hurts the American worker, which is the Middle Class and the very foundation of our society.
Trump is an abhorrent piece of shit, but at least we agree on the trade deals that have hurt the American worker very badly. The TPP has been killed, but I wouldn't mind him just killing NAFTA. It would be nice if he killed the entire H1B program, or mandated a $1 million dollar fine for each H1B who's skills are found to be duplicated in an unemployed American. Split the money among those unemployed people too, or send the money direct into the social programs that are now required to support these Americans.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Friday May 05 2017, @11:06PM (2 children)
"available". Did you not see that in your anger at my post? I am sure that there were Americans with the same skills. They were already employed (and some became my colleagues, but cost my employer far less than I did -- see next paragraph)
For my first H1B visa, I was on a very good ex-pat contract with my long-term employer. I got US salary (higher than home country) and home country benefits (much better than US benefits), plus extra benefits such as annual month-long vacation, with flights for myself and family to my home country paid for by my employer. My salary was set by taking my position in my employer's salary scale in my home country and using the same position in the US salary scale. Then there was the shipping of my possessions (a house full of them, there and back) and the cost of selling my cars. As part of the benefit package, I also received several hundred dollars per month to compensate me for the fact that my employer was no longer providing me with a company car.
Yes, I was more expensive than a local. A lot more expensive.
As I alluded to, my employer could have got an L1 visa for me. Would that have made you happier?
During my first H1, I was offered a job in CA, but decided not to take it because I would have been worse off. During my second H1, I actually changed employer. So, if I could change employer, there was no lock-in for me, why would I accept a salary that was lower than the norm?
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday May 10 2017, @09:12PM (1 child)
That's not how you started your fucking bullshit in this thread. You stated on one hand that the H1B program was flawed and abused, but then stated on the other hand that of course you were an exception to the abuse and flaws.
You made yourself out to be a Unicorn. I still don't believe you were paid more than an American, but I'm willing to be open to the possibility that you are a rare exception. The kind of exception that would justify a "talent poaching" program that attempts to soak up all the talent in the world in the first place. As I've stated before, I admire and congratulate you on your accomplishments, especially intellectually. I refuse to believe that you are so fucking special that no American could do the job.
I don't know that is, but probably yes. As long as you came over here and were fairly competing against American workers, I don't have a problem.
When corporations and hell bound executives decide to make an American TRAIN their H1B replacement before they get fired, you have one hell of a fucking hard time convincing any ordinary American that you didn't fuck us over to get here. Fucking over Americans is the entire purpose of the H1B when they are being trained by Americans that will no longer get paid once the training is over. You can't call that anything else than what it is. Foreign scabs coming in to work for less to fight union workers in America, or basically any worker asking for a living wage or safe working conditions. YOU yourself said the system was flawed and abused too, so you damn well know that this is happening. I'd love to introduce you to the extremely nice old man who used to work for HP till his higher paid, and better educated H1B replacement was trained by himself. He lives on the streets now, divorced because of the stresses of homelessness, quietly begging for his dignity with a cardboard sign asking for food. Of course, he also speaks of God and how he doesn't hate the guy who replaced him, but also doesn't understand why it was allowed in the first place.
THAT is what I think of when I hear your H1B bullshit and your pathetic fucking attempts to say that it was right, and that you weren't hurting us. I think of that nice old man living on the streets who will probably die there, and how I can't help him either, and how my government has zero fucking interests in helping him either.
Now, you are an American citizen. So you are just as much in the same pile of vile putrid shit that I'm in. I suggest you don't tell people about your H1B bullshit because the chances of them believing you were the exception to the rule is low. Just be nice and talk about your intellectual accomplishments instead.
At the very least, you support reforms and believe that the system is abused. That's progress at least.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Wednesday May 10 2017, @09:45PM
Clearly, facts don't matter to you. I have laid out why I cost my employer far more than a local employee: in fact, I have missed out several other costs that my employer paid: to name one: most of my household possessions were shipped from another continent to the USA by air freight. This included a good proportion of the furniture from the 4-bedroom house that I owned at the time. Inter-continental Air Freight! That probably cost 10s of thousands of dollars.
But let me interject another point which either I have failed to mention or has got lost in the invective:
It is my belief that the abuses of H1B visas are far greater now than decades ago when I got mine. It's not that I am a unicorn (I never claimed this), but that the way H1Bs are used has changed. Back when I got my first H1B, I recall reading that the largest job function of H1Bs was fashion models, not technical staff.
But, things change. I believe that there is widespread abuse of H1Bs today.
As for the L1 visa: this is visa for intra-company transfers. I had worked for the same employer in my home country for many years before moving to the USA. I did not take anyone's job: it was a new department that was mostly staffed up with people transferring from other parts of the company. I was already doing a very similar job, but just in a different office. Arguably, my job transferred with me.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory